Church Living And Church Living Cottage

Church Living and Church Living Cottage

This house and cottage occupy a former farmhouse traditionally associated with the nearby Church of St Winifred, though it was never a vicarage. It has been suggested that it served as a summer residence for the Canons of Exeter Cathedral. The building is essentially late 15th to early 16th century, but incorporates earlier fabric, possibly as early as the 13th century. Major improvements were carried out in the later 16th and 17th centuries. The main block was refurbished with a stable block extension in the late 19th century, and the crosswing was refurbished around 1970.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed mostly of local Salcombe stone rubble, with sections of coursed ashlar blocks particularly evident in the crosswing. Stone rubble stacks include one retaining its original late 16th to early 17th century Beerstone ashlar chimneyshaft; the others are topped with 20th-century brick. The crosswing retains a thatched roof, but the main block's thatch has been replaced with slate.

Plan and Development

The house and cottage occupy an L-plan building. The long main block faces south-south-east (effectively south) and is built across the hillslope. This section is now Church Living. At the right (east) end is a two-room former stable block added in the late 19th century. The remainder of this house has a four-room plan adapted from a late medieval layout. At the right end is the service end kitchen with a large axial (former gable-end) stack backing onto the stable extension. Between the kitchen and a small unheated room is the present entrance hall containing the main staircase. Left of the unheated room is a hall/parlour with an axial stack backing onto the unheated room. At the left (west) end of the main block is another small unheated room, formerly the inner room, converted in the 19th century to a cider house with apple loft above. At the left end, a basically two-room plan crosswing projects forward. This has been divided off from the main block and forms Church Living Cottage.

Structural History

The building has a long and complex structural history. Although evidence is slight, the 13th or 14th century house likely occupied the crosswing, probably as a first-floor hall house. It was extensively refurbished when the main block was built in the late 15th to early 16th century. This new main block was constructed with a three-room-and-cross-passage plan. The original service end room was larger than the present kitchen, as the 19th-century entrance hall and staircase was inserted into it. The unheated room between it and the hall was the original passage, though it is unclear whether this passage went through to the rear, as the ground rises steeply behind. The small unheated inner room was the only section floored at this time. The hall, passage, and service end were open to the roof, divided by low partitions, and heated by an open hearth fire.

The crosswing became the parlour wing with principal bedchamber (the solar) and possibly included a chapel. The rear gable-end stack might date from this time, though it has been much altered. Evidence suggests a newel stair in the angle of the two wings, running from the ground floor of the crosswing (the parlour) to the first-floor chamber.

Later 16th and 17th century improvements concentrated in the main block. The service end was probably floored over in the mid-16th century and the lower passage partition built up to full height. The kitchen stack is probably late 16th to early 17th century, inserted at the same time as the hall fireplace. The hall and passage were then floored over, making the house two storeys throughout, as it remains today.

Exterior

The front gable-end of the crosswing includes considerable stone ashlar, including a chamfered plinth. The ground floor window is 20th century without glazing bars, but the first-floor window is a Beerstone double lancet with relieving arch above—this window provides evidence of the 13th or 14th century origins of the building. The outer (west) side of the crosswing has a 20th-century first-floor doorway and windows. A landslip has raised the ground level to first-floor height here, though a buried ground floor slit window is exposed inside. The inner (east) side of the crosswall shows the blocked doorway to the original newel staircase, and alongside, projecting into the front wall of the main block, is a section of ashlar rebate thought to be the remains of the newel stair.

The front of the main block has an irregular eight-window front of mostly 20th-century casements, most with glazing bars. The three-window section at the right end belongs to the 19th-century stable block, with a straight join of well-dressed quoins marking the end of the old house. The inner room windows (at the left end) were converted to a doorway with loading hatch above in the 19th century when it became the cider house. The hall has a late 16th to early 17th century Beerstone four-light window with hoodmould; the mullions have external hollow chamfers and internal ovolo mouldings. The kitchen has a 20th-century window but retains a late 16th to early 17th century hoodmould above. Immediately left is the front doorway—a 19th-century segmental-headed arch containing a plank door and overlight. A small gabled service porch stands further right.

Numerous blocked features appear on both sides of the main block. On the front are ashlar jambs of what appears to have been a massive passage front doorway, and others no doubt represent windows. A slit window stands in front of the kitchen stack. To the rear of the hall is the complete surround of a full-height arch-headed window, blocked by a late 16th to early 17th century oak three-light window with mullions having external chamfers and internal ovolo mouldings. Also in the rear wall, the inner room chamber has an original small Beerstone arch-headed window. A doorway to the right (used as an apple loft loading hatch) is thought to be secondary, though it contains remains of a late 15th to early 16th century shoulder-headed door. At the back, an external flight of stone steps leads to the 19th-century stable hayloft loading hatch.

Interior

The large kitchen fireplace has a plain chamfered oak lintel and includes a large side oven. The ceiling was three bays (including the entrance hall and stair) carried on large crossbeams, chamfered with straight-cut stops. The unheated room between stairs and hall/parlour is the original passage. The lower side includes an original low partition—a plaster-panelled oak-framed screen including a two-centred arch doorway. Above it, the bottom of a secondary oak-framed crosswall is exposed, built on top of the original low partition and plastered over on the first floor.

The hall/parlour has mostly late 16th to early 17th century features, but the upper crosswall is original—a full-height oak-framed small-panel frame including a blocked shoulder-headed arch at ground floor level. The parlour fireplace is Beerstone ashlar with oak lintel with sunken chamfer. The chamber above has a contemporary Beerstone ashlar fireplace with Tudor arch head. The hall ceiling is carried by an axial beam with broad ovolo mouldings and exaggerated scroll stops.

The inner room has not been modernised since its conversion to a cider house and still contains the cider press. It was originally floored and some original plain joists of large scantling remain in situ.

The original late 15th to early 16th century roof of the main block is intact from end to end. It comprises six bays carried on side-pegged jointed cruck trusses with cambered collars, threaded purlins, and had single sets of curving windbraces, several of which survive. The hall/inner room was a closed truss from the beginning and the bay over the inner room is clean. The rest was open to the roof and is heavily smoke-blackened from the original open hearth fire.

The crosswing was modernised around 1970 and no carpentry detail is exposed on the ground floor. Any fireplace here is blocked. The first-floor fireplace is stone rubble with plain-chamfered oak lintel of indeterminate date. A blocked oak shoulder-headed doorway at first-floor level leads to the main block. The roof here is probably late 15th to early 16th century except for the front truss, which was replaced around 1970. The other two are arch-braced trusses with a very complete set of carpenters' assembly marks. This roof is clean.

A stone wall between the main block and crosswing has an oak frame on top—a closed tie-beam truss to take the main roof. This seems to support the theory that the crosswing is earlier than the main block.

The carpentry detail of the stable block is late 19th century, including the king-post truss roof. The joinery detail throughout the building is late 19th and 20th century.

At first-floor level over the late 19th-century stair in Church Living is an ornamental plaster coat of arms, heavily painted over and therefore illegible. It could be 17th century, but there are in this area a number of 19th-century plaster plaques bearing the arms of the Russian Tsars, erected to commemorate a visit to the area by the Grand Duchess Helene of Russia in 1831.

Significance

Church Living and Church Living Cottage constitute one of the most interesting medieval houses in the area. The historic fabric of the building is remarkably well preserved, and other features certainly survive under 19th and 20th century plaster. It is a most attractive building and forms part of a group with the nearby Church of St Winifred and other thatch-roofed cottages close by.